Greenpeace urges ban on plastic microbeads, used in cosmetics, to protect ocean life

Environmental group Greenpeace is calling for a ban in Britain on plastic “microbeads”, found in many cosmetics, which they warn pollute the oceans and poison marine life.

Campaigners want a total ban on the tiny particles - which are too small to be filtered - in products that are commonly washed down the drains.

Although only making up a fraction of the five to 12 million tonnes of plastic discharged into the oceans each year, these small beads are “probably the most harmful”, said Erik Van Sebille, oceanographer and climate scientist at Imperial College London.

“The smaller (the plastic) is, the most harmful it is,” he told a news conference Thursday on the Greenpeace ship “Esperanza”, moored near Tower Bridge in central London.

“Most animals won’t eat an entire plastic bag, so the smaller it is, the easier it is to be ingested.”